(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The nightmare for the Ayidi family in Gaza began right after the Palestinian uprising broke out in September last year. Israeli tanks took position just below the house, which is on the main road between the Israeli settlement of Netzarim and Israel.
- The soldiers fired at and around the house and had obviously hoped that we would evacuate. But we figured they would tear down the house if we fled. That is why we decided to stay, says the father of the family, Hussein Ayidi.
The fear of demolition was not without reason. Two neighboring houses were demolished after residents fled the soldiers' shooting and harassment. The families who fled now live in their own tents as the Red Cross has given them.
The next move of the Israeli soldiers was to destroy the five-acre property around Ayidi's house. Bulldozers pulled up orange and olive branches, destroyed the road from the house and down to the main road, cut the electricity lines and sewage and destroyed two wells.
Such destruction has been carried out in great style in this area. The entire 17 small factories and workshops and 50 wells are ravaged by Israeli bulldozers along the same road, which Palestinians now prohibit traveling.
When the Ayidi family still showed no signs of moving, the soldiers arrived after a few weeks and knocked on the door. They demanded to go up on the roof of the house, which Ayidi rejected.
According to Ayidi, the soldiers threatened to demolish the house if he did not let them in. Then they pushed him aside and made their way up the stairs. After searching the house, the soldiers relaxed hundreds of sandbags on the roof and established a permanent military post there, equipped with grenade launchers and radar. A pantry in the stairwell was destroyed, as the soldiers needed the space for their own equipment.
Human shield for soldiers
- Since then we have lived as in a prison. A soldier is on guard outside the door. We must obtain permission from the commander on the roof to leave the house. Even the youngest of two years is refused to play in the yard without permission from the responsible officer. There must be at least four family members inside the house at all times. This means that when the six eldest children are at school, and I am in the market to shop, my wife is not allowed to go out to hang up the laundry. When the children come from school, a soldier meets them and checks their bags. The soldiers can decide to put the textbooks over the wet clay in rainy weather, the father says indignantly.
- We are used as a human shield for the soldiers. They reckon that as long as we are in the house, Palestinian guerrillas will not attack them, says Ayidi.
- The worst is when they shoot from the roof at night. I can not describe my feelings when the children wake up and scream from the shooting. During the day they have become restless and aggressive, and have begun to beat each other. I myself have become nervous and irritable, and can fike to both the children and the wife for no reason, the father confesses.
53-year-old Hussein Ayidi looks at her watch. He lied to an explanation to the soldiers to get permission to leave the house and meet New Time in Gaza. Now he must return at the agreed time.
To get home he has to walk over a mile through an olive grove, then across the open, ruined fields. The soldiers will follow his movements in the binoculars, and will recognize him in his clothes. Two farmers were shot and killed in this area because the soldiers did not recognize them.
Red Cross denied entry
Ever since the Israeli soldiers established the post on Ayidi's rooftops in December, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has tried unsuccessfully to visit the family. The ICRC's head in Gaza, Stephan Gacquier, tells Ny Tid that the Israeli army has repeatedly denied their request to visit the family.
- The Israeli army has not cooperated in this matter. We have sent a team on foot sometimes, but they have always been denied access by the soldiers, says Gacquier.
Israeli journalist Amira Hass put her own life at risk when she reached the house two weeks ago. Although she told the army that she would come to the house, she was shot by the soldiers.
- They shot at the ground just a meter in front of me. There was nothing to hide behind. I stopped and called both the army and the newspaper editorial staff. After an hour, a patrol came and followed me up to the house, where I was allowed in, says Hass, who writes for the newspaper Ha »aretz.
"Safety"
A spokesman for the Israeli army, Alain Ganancia, explains that the military position is established at the house to defend Israeli soldiers and settlers traveling along the road below the house.
- There has been a lot of terrorist activity in the area, and we found it necessary to have control over this house which has a strategic position. But this is a temporary arrangement, says the spokesman, who confirms that the soldiers for security reasons require that some of the family members are inside the house at all times. He rejects that this can be described as a "human shield".
As for the devastation surrounding the house, Ganancia claims that the electricity lines were cut by a Palestinian bomb along the road, and not by army bulldozers as the family has explained. The spokesman was not informed about the destruction of sewage pipes and wells, which are the house's only water supply. He says he doubts that this was intentionally destroyed.
The military spokesman further confirms that the Red Cross has been denied access.
- It is true that we have received an application from the Red Cross for a visit to the family. We are working on the case, and I hope that it will go well in a few days, the spokesman says.
